dan rowinski

The Hat Trick: Key Bruins reappear in Game 2 upset

With perhaps the best goaltender in the world opposing the Bruins, it seemed as if there was no way Boston would be able to overcome a 2-0 series deficit in a best-of-seven series against the Sabres.

That being the case, there was a sense of urgency about avoiding such a fate. The Bruins accomplished that mission on Saturday by coming back from a first-period, two-goal deficit to take Game 2 by a 5-3 score over the Sabres at HSBC Arena in Buffalo.

The Sabres had not lost a game all year (30-0-0) when entering the third period with a lead, a fact that reflected mostly on the superb, MVP-caliber play of Ryan Miller this season. Yet in Game 2, he let the lead go not just once, but twice.

It turned out to be a day for comebacks, but early on it looked like a disaster for the Bruins. Tuukka Rask was shaky at the start of the game, allowing a goal at 2:55 to Tyler Myers (admittedly, off a deflection of Steve Begin’s skate) and then one to fourth-liner Matt Ellis where he failed to cut the forward's angle at 12:00 in the first.

But Rask settled down, and the Bruins woke up and stormed back.

This is where Boston showed its grit forged over the latter stages of the season. Coach Claude Julien has been saying that the team should benefit from the last month-and-a-half of the regular season, when it battled to get into the playoffs. When a team must treat every night as a must-win, the pressure starts to mount and teams learn about their character.

The Bruins have become accustomed to the pressure. Though by no means perfect, they demonstrated that they are a quality hockey team that can be dangerous when given an opportunity.

The series shifts to Boston for Game 3 on Tuesday, and in order to sustain ambitions of an upset, the Bruins will need to sustain the desperation that they discovered following the first period on Saturday.

On to the Hat Trick:
NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN BOYS

The last half of the season was a bit of a game of “Where’s Waldo” when it came to the likes of Michael Ryder and Blake Wheeler. Through a sea of Black and Gold, they were nowhere to be found.

A large part of the Bruins' inability to score could be directly attributed to Wheeler and Ryder’s inability to finish, or even create, opportunities. Maybe the playoffs are breathing new life into the forwards, who were instrumental in carving Boston’s comeback on Saturday.

Ryder scored two goals. In both instances, he was set up by strong passing and puck control by Wheeler (who received the secondary assist each time).

The first of Ryder’s goals, the one that got the Bruins on the board for the first time in the second period, was a hustle play by the forward after a Vladimir Sobotka screamer from the high slot bounced off Miller’s pads straight above him and over his shoulder. It probably would have gone in anyway, but Ryder crashed the net and stuck his stick in the crease and caught a piece of it midair to finish it off and send the Bruins on their way.

Wheeler’s part in the goal was to play a good cycle coming from the corner back up the left wing. He used his body to protect the puck along the wall and waited long enough to find Sobotka with space up top.

The second of Ryder’s goals tied the game in the third and came courtesy of a 4-on-2 rush with Wheeler, Ryder, Andrew Ference and Sobotka charging towards Sabres defenders Andrej Sekera and Craig Rivet.

Wheeler was the trailer on the play on the far wing and received the first pass from Ryder in the offensive zone and then threw it back across the front of the crease, through Ference’s skates to the stick of Ryder. He flipped it up into the net as Miller was out of position on the other side as he aggressively came out of the crease to challenge the puck.

If Wheeler and Ryder get hot with Sobtoka, Boston becomes a different team. The Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi-Milan Lucic line can score and David Krejci has been on fire in the latter part of the season. What has been missing is the production from what is nominally the “scoring” line (based on roles and talent). Consistency will be the key, but Saturday was encouraging.

Zdeno Chara also scored two goals for Boston as the captain continued his run of dominating play that began at the end of March and has run through the first two games of the playoffs.

An interesting side note is that Ryder has scored two goals in two of the Bruins' last three games, as he had two in the regular season finale against the Capitals.
SABRES' OXYMORONIC MAN-ADVANTAGE

An important lesson for the whole series is to remember that the Sabres power play is just about as good as that of the Bruins – which is to say, not very good at all.

At least Boston has a man-advantage strike in the series, as Recchi capitalized on a power play in Game 1. The Sabres have gone through the first two games of the series without a power-play goal and are 0-for-9 thus far. That is a fair amount of opportunities, almost a full period's worth of the six periods played in the series.

The Bruins and Sabres are similar teams. Buffalo was second in the league in the penalty kill department, Boston third (St. Louis was first). Yet, neither team was in the top half of the league on the power play as the Sabres finished 17th, the Bruins 23rd.

It is odd to see what is normally a Boston-based storyline (lack of power play goals) transposed onto another team. It is a trend that would favor Boston if it continues.

The key to the Bruins' special teams play has been to have Daniel Paille and Steve Begin be aggressive, especially on the blue line, as the opposing team tries to make the entry. When they disrupt the entry, they disrupt the set play and put the Bruins in good shape to kill the penalty.

Then there is also the team's best penalty-killer overall – Rask. Both he and Tim Thomas have contributed greatly to Boston’s penalty killing this year.

Baseball teams are always as good as their starting pitcher. Penalty killing hockey teams are only as good as their goalies. In Boston’s case, that means it is pretty good.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?

After Game 1, it became clear the Bruins needed to neutralize Sabres forward Thomas Vanek because Boston does not have the depth with their forwards to match a scorer of his capabilities. Johnny Boychuk found an emphatic way to fulfill that mandate.

The Austrian forward was chasing down a puck to the left of Rask’s crease with Boychuk following hard. The defenseman was a step behind and slashed at Vanek’s right knee with his stick, causing the knee to buckle and Vanek to lose his edge and slide with a thump into the end wall. He got up slowly and hobbled with effort to the bench and down the tunnel.

Make no mistake about it, the loss of Vanek directly contributed to the Bruins' comeback. The Sabres were up 2-0 when he left the game and were outscored 5-1 without him. He is the player that makes Buffalo a little taller than Boston and without him the talent levels on each team are very similar.

Without that superior talent, the series becomes a chess match as opposed to one where Sabres’ coach Lindy Ruff can just throw out Vanek, Tim Connolly and Jason Pominville and make the Bruins try to catch up all the time.

Vanek missed six games down the stretch with a groin injury before coming back like gangbusters right before the playoffs started. The initial word on his ailment is “lower body” and it is natural to wonder if it is the groin area or if Boychuk’s hack job to the knee (he was rightly penalized for it) is the source of the Vanek’s time in the infirmary.

Clearly, the health of Buffalo's top scoring threat will play a huge role in the series going forward.

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